Thursday, February 10, 2011

Disposable Hudson

At the Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday night, the Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties presented a proposal that was received with enthusiasm by the three members of commission present: Chairman Don Tillson, Carmine Pierro, and Cleveland Samuels.

The Mental Health Association operates a group home, for ten residents, in this building at 900 Columbia Street.

They are proposing to construct a new building behind this one. When the new building is completed and the ten residents moved in, the existing house will be demolished and the space where it stood used for parking. Although the building has been renovated several times--most recently in 2005 and 2006--Carl Whitbeck, who, as counsel for the Mental Health Association, presented the project to the commission, said, "We've got to stop occupying this building." Commission member Samuels was enthusiastic about the plan, saying, "Taking down the building would be nice."

Whitbeck described the building as 19th century, as if that fact alone were justification for tearing it down. The design of the house suggests that it is very early 19th century or possibly late 18th century. With five bays and a center hall, the original building (the sixth bay at the right is an addition) is similar to several houses on lower Union Street: 117, 119-123, 211, 241--all built by Proprietors (the founders of Hudson) or sons of Proprietors. The location of the house, on the road to Claverack, also suggests its antiquity. A building where Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, once had a law office stood across the street from this house, until a few years ago when it was demolished to expand a parking lot. Research may reveal that 900 Columbia Street also has important connections to local history, but whether it does or not, it's a part of Hudson's architectural heritage, and it should be preserved, not demolished for offstreet parking.

11 comments:

Hudson needs to swap this major historic building for one of her vacant plots. Mental Health Assoc. can then build without the need to demolish. When construction is completed the residents can relocate and this magnificent property sold for more than the vacant plot of land traded.

This proposal is absolutely INSANE and those in support need to have their heads checked.

Peter--The Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties does own the building and has run a group home there for a while. I first became aware of the group home in April 2010, when the same Mental Health Association was trying to create two similar group homes on Anthony Avenue in Greenport. At a neighborhood meeting protesting the new facilities in Greenport, a retired Hudson police officer passed around a report listing the 911 calls made from 900 Columbia Street as evidence that the facility was something they did not want in their neighborhood.

The Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties has been around for a while. Check out their website: www.mhacg.org. They used to be located in the building that is now FACE Stockholm. They now have their offices in the building on Union above Seventh that was built to be an A&P--or some supermarket. At last night's meeting, Whitbeck made the comment that the facility does not have to comply with city ordinances (which ones he meant, I don't know), implying that they were appearing before the Planning Commission as a courtesy, and they didn't need site plan approval. (He couldn't have gotten it last night anyway, since there wasn't a quorum.) He also indicated that a "state agency needs to commit to the financing." I wonder if that state agency cares that it may be financing the demolition of a historic house.

The rest of the planning establishment recognized decades ago that it harms the urban realm to not have buildings close to the street. Why haven't Hudson's planners understood this? Why do they remain trapped in a destructive suburban mentality?

It can't be in the water, Peter. Didn't we just--not ten years ago--invest in a state-of-the-art water filtration system--one we're still paying for with that rent-to-own deal struck with Colarusso for the land around the City's secondary water supply?

If they go ahead with their crazy plan we will have to form a 'save the house' group which was successfully done when the hospital wanted to raze the Cavell House (now the NYOncology Center) for a parking lot. The health people are really interested in parking lots.

The fact that Cleveland Samuels, on the Board of the Association, thinks that razing the house is a good idea -- well, this tells you the huge gulf in sensibilities in this town. Cleveland started one of the few minority-owned and operated businesses in town (Landscaping), has/had kids in our schools (his daughter was in my son's class), etc. Could I suggest that someone (Carole? Tim?) write a nice, calm, straightforward, informational and educational letter to the RS explaining the need to preserve these "old" houses.--pm

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About The Gossips of Rivertown

This blog takes its name from the 1850 novel by Hudson author Alice B. Neal. The original Gossips of Rivertown cast a gimlet eye on Hudson society in the mid-19th century. More than a century and a half later, the new Gossips carries on the spirit of the original, but in a different genre and with a different focus.